The Witch, The Demon Hunter, and The Devil
by Missjillyv1991
Summary: Takes place before DMC 1 and after DMC 3. A young witch comes to Dante's office, sensing the rise of Mundus. She tries to convince Dante to actually do something about it, but this is Dante we're talking about. Will she be able to convince a man who won't even get off his ass for a pizza to save the human realm? Rating subject to change!
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. I don't own Capcom, Devil May Cry, or any of it's characters.**

* * *

Demons didn't exist right?

At least, that's what Victoria told herself growing up. She saw them everywhere; at the market, clothing store, the park, the bus, school. They Permeated every aspect of her life, from the time she was five until now, at the age of nineteen, and she would probably continue to see them for the remainder of her life. Usually, if she paid them no mind, they didn't approach or bother her; probably seeing her as a lowly human and thus a waste of time. However, there was that occassional demon that followed and bothered her, but those demons weren't TOO HARD to shake.

All her life, Victoria had simply viewed the presense of demons permeating her life as simply a fact of living. She'd always found that paying them no heed was the best policy since they were less likely to bother her as long as she pretended to be unable to sense or see past their human disguises.

There was one night however, when she was coming back from the library after a late night studying. At first, it was just one demon who had decided to follow her. No biggie she thought to herself, I can shake just one with no problem. However, soon another joined him, then another, and before she knew it, Victoria was running from a horde of demons.

Victoria ran through the streets like a mad-woman, desperately trying to escape the demons. Thats is, until she hit a dead end.

Looking around her, Victoria saw that she was sureounded by two twenty feet tall walls of buildings and a twelve foot tall fence with barbed wire wrapped around the top. The only way out was where she had come in, and that was where the demons were approaching from.

Bracing herself for the worst, Victoria prepared herself. I may be nothing more than a human, but I have spells that can help me.

Before she could prepare her spells though, a man with silver hair and a blue coat jumped from above.

"I thought I told you that there was to be no playing involved. This was to be an information gathering mission only", the silver headed man in the long blue coat said through gritted teeth.

An eruption of whispers soon flooded the alleyway. _Information only...do as the master says..._ These were all the metallic-like voices hissed in whispers that Victoria could make out before they all left in a flash. Dumbfounded at what had just happened, all Victoria could do was stare. She soon came to her senses until the silver headed man in the blue coat held out his hand for her to take.

Taking his hand and pulling herself back up, he snapped, "What are you doing here? This is no place for humans!" And with that, he disappeared into the night.

 _What. The. FUCK. Just happened?!_ was all Victoria could think as she straightened out her clothes and stared in the opening of the alleyway where the demons and the man in blue had just been only moments ago. Coming to her senses, Victoria realized that man was right; this _was_ no place for a human. Especially after what had just happened. Regaining her senses, Victoria noticed something she hadn't noticed before. Her intuition was trying to tell her that something was amiss, something was very _very_ wrong right now. And not just here...she sensed it all around her.

 _Something big is coming, and whatever it is, I've got a **bad** feeling about it._ With that final thought on the matter, Victoria quickly grabbed her belongings, which had fallen out of her hands when the demons attacked her, and ran all the way back home.


	2. Chapter 1: Devil May Cry

**Author's Note: Hello everyone! Just a warning before you read, there's drug use in this fic. So don't read if you don't like!**

 **Also, Faceclaim: Victoria; cross between Lara Croft (the young, new design) and Adelaide Kane.**

 **Enjoy ^.^**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Devil May Cry**

After last night's attack by the demons and the Man in Blue saving her, Victoria had grabbed her books and raced back to her dormitory on her college campus. She was a sophomore and school had only begun about a three weeks ago, but she running around the campus in a mad panic, she must have looked like an idiot as she bumbled through the campus looking for her dorm building; she embarrassingly walking into two wrong dorm buildings.

When she'd finally gotten into her room, she'd quickly locked the deadbolt on the door and propped he roommate's chair against it for safe measure. For once, she was glad that Camilla wasn't home (she was staying the night at her boyfriend's), as Victoria was in quite a state; she'd scrapped her knees to hell, she was a sweaty disheveled mess, and her long, braided dark hair had come loose, thus making her hair look stringy. Not that she'd cared at that moment. After securing the door into her dorm room, Victoria then quickly unlocked the padded lock on her wardrobe, unlocked the safe inside of it, and pulled out the Beretta her father had gifted to her when she left her home state for college. She then grabbed her own desk chair, turned it to face the door, locked and loaded her gun, and sat there, waiting for hours until she felt safe enough to go to bed.

Waking up after only six hours of sleep, still groggy and disoriented from the Klonopin and Ambien she had taken to sleep, Victoria sat in bed and was actually beginning to wonder if last night had simply been a dream. However, after seeing the cuts and bruises from last night's encounter, she came to the horrified realization that last night was _indeed_ not a dream; but it was in fact, very real.

 _I thought things had been feeling wrong around the city for the past week_ , she thought to herself, _last night just confirmed that my visions and intuition were true: we_ are _about to be under attack by demons, or we already are being under attack._ At these thoughts, Victoria groaned to herself: as if she didn't have enough problems already; she had an anxiety disorder _and_ primary insomnia, which weren't helped by the fact that she was also what most would call a "witch".

Seeing that she only had about an hour to shower, dress, and get her butt in her seat for her Chemistry exam, Victoria quickly pushed this out of her mind; but she was also mildly hoping that demons would crash the Chemistry building and cancel the exam. She doubted the she had that much luck though.

* * *

It was around 3 P.M. in afternoon before Lady was able to get over to Devil May Cry. Getting off her bike, she'd decided not to take Kalina Ann with her since she currently had no missions today and was only heading over to talk with Dante. Walking through the two heavy doors, she saw that Dante was nowhere in sight. Irritated she yelled, "Yo! Asshole! You home?!"

No response.

Sighing irritably, Lady realized that if Dante wasn't passed out drunk at his desk or in the shower, then he'd probably been up all night at Love Planet and was passed out in bed dead asleep. Stomping up the stairs to his bedroom, she was going to barge in and wake the lazy bastard up, but realizing that this may put her at risk for seeing something that may scar her for life, she decided to bang on the door loudly.

 _Bang Bang Bang_ "Yo! You better have some pants on or at least have your dick covered!"

No response, but she _did_ hear sheets rustling as Dante probably rolled over in his sleep.

 _Goddamnit!_ Lady felt her temper flaring. _Lazy Sonofabitch!_ Barging through the door, which was unlocked, Lady was careful not to look over at the bed in case there was a scene laying in it that she'd rather not see. Walking over to the curtains, she jerked them open yelling, "Rise and Shine!"

Dante, half naked with a half empty bottle of Jack still in his hand, groaned and pulled a pillow over his face against the offending light. "Ugh! Why?!" He ground out, head throbbing, and hung over.

"Job," Lady simply said as she yanked the pillow off his face. "Get decent, come downstairs and we'll talk about it."

Hearing Lady leave, but not closing the door behind her, Dante took a swig and got up to shower. Coming downstairs, he saw Lady helping herself to his fridge.

"Jeez, Dante. You're diet is _terrible_! All that's in here is pizza and ice cream!" Closing the door to the fridge, she dug around her purse for a bottle of pills. Handing him three gel capsules, she told him, "Take these and take a shower. You smell like booze, smoke, and _shame_."

"Yeah, yeah..." he responded as he took the pills, swallowing them with Jack, and headed for the shower. Closing the bathroom door he heard Lady say, _And quit drinking! You need to sober up, not drink hair of the dog! And look professional! I'll make coffee._

While Dante was showering, Lady looked at the mess of a kitchen.

 _Slob_ , she thought as she struggled to find the coffee pot. Finally finding it under a stack of pizza boxes, she soon found the coffee grinds and began to brew the coffee using water from the sink. She was trying to work on her temper a bit, but the way Dante lived, in a stye, was _disgusting_. The two of them got along a lot better when she didn't have to meet up with him at Devil May Cry; but she'd been called by the president of the nearby university about the campus _possibly_ having a demon problem, and after checking it out last night, she realized that she needed Dante's help in taking it out.

* * *

Sighing as she looked at the results on her chemistry exam she'd taken earlier this morning, she supposed that the first exam would be the one that'd have to be dropped because she'd epically failed it.

 _Stupid Demons!_ Victoria thought as she turned off her laptop to lay in bed.

She had slept very little last night and after her confrontation with the demons, she was pretty exhausted and pissed off. If last night hadn't happened, she probably would've done pretty damn well on that exam!

 _Fuck I could really use a joint right now!_

Before college, Victoria would have never even contemplated smoking, but after attending a few college parties and getting a few drinks in her, she let some friends talk her into smoking a bowl with them. Such a liberating experience! These friends had always told her how anal retentive and high strung she was and that popping benzodiazepines wasn't a very good way to cope with her anxieties.

Sighing in frustration, Victoria settled on turning on the TV. The local news channel playing in the background, she started taking her clothes off to put on her lounge clothes. Going into the bathroom to take her makeup off, something on the news caught her ear. Going back into the room, she turned up the volume and sat on her bed.

"Strange occurrences continue to happen around the city. Last night, two local university students met a violent end-"

Victoria's mouth dropped when she saw the camera pan to the "crime scene". The students must have been cornered by...something...as there were nothing but large, long slashes accompanied with copious amounts of blood on all three walls.

Listening more carefully, the news woman added, "local law enforcement is baffled as they do not know what could have possibly caused these markings or this amount of damage. The university president has stated that all students should be careful, but the university will not be shut down as these deaths occurred off campus."

Feeling a cold chill go down her spine, Victoria quickly looked for her bottle of Xanax and popped one. Though Victoria had accepted demonic presence in the human world to be a reality since she was little, it did little to help her anxieties about their existence. In fact, any time she sensed a demon to be near by, she began to have panic attacks.

Lying in bed, shaking, Victoria patiently waited for the medication to take effect and calm her down. She felt tears streaming down her eyes as she felt despair; she hated the fact that she had to live her life by needing anti-anxiety and sleeping pills every single day. Recently, she was having to use them more often than usual; likely due to the increased demonic activity.

After about twenty minutes, Victoria felt the medicine kick-in and her paralyzing anxiety went away. Taking a deep breath, she finally felt calm enough to think.

 _I'm done with these fucks, time to do something about them._

Getting out of bed, Victoria put her Beretta in her purse and pulled her clothes back on. She may be just one witch with a handgun, but she was sick of demons thinking that they could kill people on _her_ turf.

Putting on a pair of brown combat boots, Victoria locked the door behind her, and headed towards the demon.

* * *

Meeting up with the stuffy university president, Dante and Lady were asked to keep their investigation into the demon sightings as quiet as possible. Apparently, the university couldn't afford to close, and if demons were found by the public, they'd be forced to out of safety concerns.

Due to the campus wide warnings about the nearby violent crimes, the campus was basically empty when the sun fell and night came. That was when Dante and Lady split up and decided to begin scouting the campus for demons. So far though, neither had any luck.

After midnight, the two hunters met up in the quad and took a break. Lady found a vending machine and got them both sodas, which they sipped on as they re-grouped. The campus was larger than they had expected, and thus, it took them a good three hours to thoroughly check the south and east sides.

Finishing her soda, Lady spoke first, "I guess we should get started on checking the North and West sides." Hitching Kalina-ann up on the large strap, she began to walk to the West. "I'll start on the West side. Let's meet back here in three hours." Stopping in her tracks, she realized that she forgot something. Pulling two radios out she added, "I forgot that I found these radios. This campus is so large we could easily lose track of each other." Tossing a radio to Dante, Lady told him, "Radio me if you find anything."

Dante waved her off, "Later."

Finishing his own soda, Dante picked up the guitar case that held his massive sword, Rebellion, and began to head North. The library was the biggest structure North, so he thought he'd head there first.

Half a mile away, something caught Dante's eye in the shadows. Focusing, he saw that a girl with long dark hair, pulled back, wearing jeans and combat boots was checking the parameters before entering the building cautiously. Then, it struck him; this girl, there was something different. Something about her wasn't right, but Dante couldn't figure out exactly why; though he knew one thing for sure, she wasn't an ordinary human.

Making up his mind, Dante walked toward the library and decided to follow her.

* * *

To say Victoria was terrified was an understatement. As she spent the past several hours trying to covertly search the campus for the demonic presence she felt, she finally found it. As she had approached the library, Victoria felt the demonic presence to be overwhelming. It had to be here.

It was almost Midnight on a Friday night and nobody was around, save for the couple of librarians at the front desk on the first floor.

Going up to the second floor, Victoria headed towards the stacks of very old books that even the professors rarely dealt with.

 _It's here_ , Victoria thought as she felt the shivers go up her spine. There were no cameras around the "stacks" since it was the oldest part of the building, so she assumed it was safe to take her gun out and head up the stairs to the third floor.

As Victoria got up to the third floor, she felt paralyzing fear run through her like lightening; the demon was on this floor in and in this area. Cautiously, Victoria began to go through the long lines of bookcases after dropping her purse on the floor. After going through the third row, Victoria stopped dead in her tracks and felt her breathing deepen and slow. Quickly ducking, a large, long sharp claw barely missed her head, and knocked the bookcases over.

 _Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit!_

In the chaos, Victoria had lost her gun.

Scrambling to her feet, she saw the demon materialize. It was a slick, oily black insect looking thing with long, scythe like claws for arms.

"Take _this_ _motherfucker_!" Victoria concentrated her energy and sent a ball of fire at it. If it was an insect demon like she suspected, then it would be most susceptible to fire. Thankfully, she was right as she saw the large, burning hole burning the demon's massive oily abdomen. Unfortunately though, this caused the sprinklers and the fire alarm to go off.

As the water from the sprinklers extinguished the fire on the demon, Victoria saw her black gun a few feet in front of her and scrambled for it. Since she had exposed the thing's abdomen with the fire spell, maybe it wouldn't be so impervious to her bullets.

Grabbing the gun and unlocking the safety, Victoria aimed to fire, but what she saw made her stomach drop; the water extinguished the fire, enabling the demon to heal itself.

 _Fuck me!_

Victoria started to fire rapidly as the demon advanced towards her. It's oily skin seemed to make it bullet resistant. When it got too close, it threw it's long arms in a slicing motion towards Victoria. It would have cut her head off had she not ducked and rolled in time.

 _Time for a new strategy_.

Summoning another fire spell, she sent the fire ball soaring at the demon again, however, it covered itself with it's metal-like claws. It was unaffected if it blocked with it's claws. Backing up, Victoria realized that she had been backed into a corner.

 _NO! No no no no no!_ This was it...this was how she was going to die...

Summoning more fire spells, Victoria figured that if she died, then she would at least die fighting! Holding it's claws out in front of it, the demon advanced until it was only about five feet from Victoria. The demon, still using its claws as a shield, then whipped her to the side with it's long tail, sending Victoria crashing, hard, into the wall next to her.

Drained and injured, Victoria could only think, _I'm done...I'm_ _going to die!_

Victoria closed her eyes, not wanting to see the horror of her own death, when suddenly, she heard something like a sword slicing through thick, wet flesh.

Opening her eyes, she saw the demon had been cut in half by a tall man in red with silver hair, holding a big, long sword.

 _He looks like the man in blue!_ Not only that, but Victoria also sensed that he was a demon as well.

Picking up her Beretta, Victoria noticed that he was unguarded so she took the opportunity to shoot him right between the eyes. Expecting the man in red to fall, she was shocked the he had barely even flinched.

"Ah! Shit that hurt!" the man in red yelped as he rubbed blood off of his forehead. There was no bullet hole.

Shocked, Victoria quickly recomposed herself; "Who _the FUCK_ are you?!" Holding her gun aimed at his head again.

"Is that anyway to thank me? I _did_ just save your sweet ass _girl_!"

Victoria felt her temper rise. _"_ Girl?!" She bristled before sending a fire spell his way.

The man in red's speed in dodging her spell was incredible!

Putting out the flames that had nicked the bottom edge of his red coat, he scowled at her. "You know, you'd probably get along well with my partner." Advancing towards Victoria, he knocked the Beretta out of her hand.

Victoria flattened herself against the wall behind her in fear.

"To answer your question, the name is Dante." Sensing that the young woman in front of him was about to bolt, he trapped her with his arms; he had a few questions for her as well. "Now that I've answered your question," Dante began as the woman struggled to get free, "who and _what_ are _you_? Never seen a prolific magic user such as yourself before."

* * *

 **To Be Continued...**


	3. Chapter 2: The Mystic

Chapter 2: The Mystic

Lady agreed with Dante: they should take the young woman back to Devil May Cry with them. Magic users, or witches, may be somewhat common as far as "supernatural" (people who posses the ability to use powers beyond the average human) go, but the tended to be quite cautious as to whom they allowed this knowledge to. Lady and Dante were afraid that if the university president knew about the "witch", and about her being at the campus library during the attack; he'd send the witch to the infirmary and they'd never see her again… _Magic users don't like having their cover blown, especially by demons._

While Lady spoke to the president, Dante waited in the car with the witch. Initially not expecting Lady to take so long, Dante remained silent with the witch; however, after thirty minutes of Lady speaking with the president, both occupants of the car got bored.

After taking her gun for safekeeping—and to prevent from getting shot again—Dante examined the witch: she only had minor cuts and bruises, but her mental state was a different matter entirely. The woman's dilated pupils, rapid shallow breathing and profuse sweating indicated that she was having an acute stress reaction.

Attempting to calm the woman next to him, Dante asked her for her name.

No response. His question seemed to fall on deaf ears as the half-demon could only hear deep, shallow breathing.

 _Suit yourself_ —Dante leaned back and quietly contemplated. The young woman's ragged breathing provided background noise.

Victoria attempted to pull herself together, but to no avail; the two of them, herself and the demon, just waited there like that for a while: him, obviously annoyed; and her, obviously panicking.

"Jesus Dante!" Lady had finally come back. "She's obviously in shock. You could have at least let her lay down."

 _Whatever_ —He didn't have time for this crap. "How much are we getting paid?" he asked, moving to the driver's seat, starting the engine.

"Not enough," Lady grumbled as she sat next to the witch.

"Here," Lady suddenly handed the witch a soda, "It'll help take the edge off," she offered. The witch took a couple of careful sips before gulping down the fizzy drink.

After finishing the drink the young witch seemed to calm down enough to talk.

"So, you're a magic user. That's hard to come by," Lady attempted to start a conversation. "What made you come to the library to face the demon? My partner says you were armed and trying to kill it yourself."

Gaining enough of her bearings, Victoria started telling them about the recent killings of students on campus. "I couldn't just sit by and do nothing… these are my fellow students; I could not simply stand by and watch them be murdered."

After being questioned by the man and woman for ten minutes, Victoria finally asked; "Who are you two? FBI? CIA?" It was a serious question.

Both Dante and Lady bust out laughing at the mere thought that they could be working for such a bloated, inept bureaucracy such as the United States government.

"Well then, who are you?" Victoria asked, frustrated by their laughter. She felt her face heat as her ignorance was revealed.

"We're just two demon hunters," Dante answered casually.

Victoria was a little taken aback by this; she didn't think demon hunting was an actual profession. "So that's an actual profession then?"

"You bet your sweet ass it is," Dante answered.

After leaving the police and president, Victoria expected to be taken back to her dormitory; however, the lady with the bazooka drove her past the dorms and towards the city.

"I want out!" Victoria exclaimed once she realized that she was being taken away from home.

The lady with the bazooka told her to relax, her tone calm. Victoria felt something come over her: a strange sense of calm. However, that was short lived when she asked again.

"I demand that you take me home!" Victoria broke through the fog. Trying the door, she figured that she'd leap out of the moving car if need be. A distant voice told her not to move. Victoria ignored the voice and tried the door again. Wiggling it free, she was about to jump when she heard a shout and froze, falling unconscious.

" _Jeez Dante, you didn't have to knock her out."_

" _She would have hurt herself if I hadn't," he defended himself, carrying the frozen, semi-unconscious witch with him._

 _Feeling herself being laid down on something cold, but soft, Victoria opened her eyes. Her vision was hazy at best, but she could see that she was in an office. A junked one at that._

" _Think she'll remember any of this?" the man asked._

" _Not likely," the woman responded, looking at Victoria struggling to regain control and full consciousness. "Now is the perfect time to ask."_

 _The two demon hunters didn't waste time before interrogating Victoria._

" _How are you able to wield magic?' the woman asked._

" _I've always been able to," Victoria found herself answering, unwillingly._

" _Who are you?" the silver haired man asked. "What are you?" was the better question._

" _I…" Victoria was sincerely dumbfounded. Had they given her some sort of truth serum? She didn't even know what she was anymore! However, she still knew who she was._

" _I'm Victoria…I'm a student of pharmacy at the University," she answered sincerely. "I…I'm someone who wants to help people…to heal them." It took so much strength just to get those words out._

" _Why did you go to the library? Did you know the demon was there?" Victoria could no longer decide whose voice was asking the question._

 _Groggy and fading fast, she answered: "My fellow students were being killed, I couldn't do nothing. I sensed a demon in the library, a powerful one, so I came after it…I just wanted the killings to end…" Victoria closed her eyes and breathed into the cold material she lay on. It was leather, she could tell from its smell and cool, smooth skin._

Satisfied with the girl's answers, Dante and Lady let her pass out on the sofa before discussing her responses amongst themselves.

Contemplating, Lady tiredly walked to pour herself a cup of piping hot coffee— _I wonder if mother was initially confused too. Just like this girl._ When Lady was "Mary" she remembered her mother telling her that she didn't know whom she was until Father showed her. Father was born with the innate ability to bring the best out of everyone, except for himself…all of which ultimately led to the demise of Lady's family.

Dante, On the other hand, sat in his chair. After drinking two shots of Jack, he kicked back and closed his eyes. "I don't care what you want to do with her," he said to Lady, apathetically. "Just get on with it."

Finishing her cup of Joe, Lady looked at her partner carefully: The years had been most unkind to Dante; she wasn't surprised to see dark circles and heavy bags under his eyes, evidence of lack of quality sleep, but she hadn't expected him to appear so much older than herself so quickly.

Lady, still maintaining the full cheeks of her youth and appearing to be nineteen at the age of twenty-two, saw for the first time that Dante appeared to be much older than he actually was. Instead of looking like the twenty five year old man he was, he appeared to be thirty. Though Lady felt sad for her friend, she had learned to distance herself emotionally— _I have enough problems without dealing with his_ —was what she had ultimately decided with Dante and his grief. He had every reason to be sad, and she had every reason to avoid his sadness. _Both of us have been dealt terrible hands in life_.

"Though she has seen 'too much' the girl has done nothing wrong," Lady finally stated. "She simply exists; therefore, she doesn't deserve to be killed or hurt." Lady hated the humanity that suddenly crept up on her; it would be easier to kill the girl and be done with the matter. "She posses no threat to us now, but we should still keep an eye on her." _Just in case another Arkham comes along to use her like "Kalina-Ann"._

Dante closed his eyes at this; the girl may pose no threat now, but in fifty years? Once her magic is developed and strengthened? She could become more dangerous than Arkham. "Right, she posses no threat, NOW" Dante aimed Ivory at the young woman's forehead. "But who's to say she won't in ten years? Or even fifty? I'd be alone to deal with that myself." Reflecting on the chaos Arkham had caused, Dante was morally all right with ending the young witch's life, here and now.

Sighing, Lady looked at Dante severely. "We can't kill her just because she can use magic, Dante." Lady chastised her "partner".

"Yes," Dante agreed; "RIGHT NOW, she's just a magic user, but in a decade or so, who's to say she won't become another Arkham?" He saw Lady flinch at the mention of her father, but ignored it; the prospect of another Arkham was a more pressing matter. "She could open another gateway to Hell."

" _I'm a magic user you know!_ " Lady revealed this suddenly. "How else do you think I'm able to fight demons?!" She felt her defenses rise. "Not all of us are half demon, and not all of us find magic to be useless! Magic CAN be used for good, you know?!"

Despite a bad feeling creeping up on him, Dante agreed with Lady: they would keep the young witch alive and only reveal what they needed to."

Lady relaxed on the couch while Dante kicked back in his chair at his desk. Both of them sore and exhausted from chasing the demon down all night. "Think she has anything to do with the sudden increase in demonic activity at the university?" Lady finally asked. "Doubt it," Dante responded, flipping through a magazine. When he'd found Victoria in the library, she seemed to be guessing on how to defeat the demon. The chances of her having summoned the demon seemed unlikely. "She _did_ say that she _felt_ the demonic presence. Though." Dante said, suddenly looking up. "Think it's anything worth looking into?" Lady asked, rubbing her sore legs.

"I'll ask Morrison next time I see him."

As if she had awakened from a terrible nightmare, Victoria shot out of her bed, breathing hard. Though her dorm room was dark, she could tell where everything was and where she was.

Fully clothed still, Victoria undressed for bed, contemplating— _Was this all a dream?_

Locking her gun back up, Victoria stripped and crawled into bed. Closing her eyes, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Her dreams were filled with a silver haired man trying to protect her. He appeared different six times: three times old and young wearing red; once young and old wearing blue; and twice, young and middle age in purple. But when he came, it was all the same: he was there to protect her.

After some much needed sleep and lack of evidence from the school, Victoria came to the conclusion that she'd had a fitful dream. The lady with the bazooka wasn't real nor was the demon in red with silver hair.

Moving on with her life, it had been weeks since Victoria had witnessed the incident with the demon in the library; however, she was still feeling out some demonic activity. Initially, she thought it was Dante, the man from her dreams, possibly stalking her. He and Lady had been quite intrigued with her magic abilities, but this presence felt malevolent; and besides, they weren't real were they?

Night after night of restless sleep, Victoria was in such a state of fatigue that she'd begun taking naps after class.

One such day, as Victoria slept in her room, a dark mist began seeping through the doors to the hallway. Forming into a humanoid shape, the form traveled quickly to a door and went through it.

The door opened with a bang, startling Victoria awake.

"Hey roomie!" Camilla said cheerfully, locking the door behind her. It was finally Friday and she couldn't wait to go home for the weekend!

"Hey…" Victoria said, groggy. Stopping for a moment— _that dream. The fog. It felt so real_. "Did you…" she hesitated; Camilla already thought she was weird enough and she didn't want to make the tension worse between them.

"Did I what?" Camilla asked, pulling her curls up into a bun atop her head while she got ready to pack.

With everything that had been happening recently, Victoria couldn't help herself; "Did you notice anything or anyone in the hallway? You know, like something unusual."

 _God you are so creepy sometimes_. Camilla hadn't told her roommate yet, but she was moving out in a couple of months. It wasn't that she disliked Victoria…Okay, maybe just a little. But it was mostly because she just couldn't handle Victoria's moods and strange behavior anymore. It was causing the girls in her social circle to whisper. "No," Camilla shrugged. "It was just me in the hallway."

"Oh," Victoria responded, looking at her phone. It was only four in the afternoon. "Leaving so soon?"

"Yeah," Camilla responded before leaving with her bags. She didn't want to miss dinner. "See you Monday!" She chirped before leaving.

Closing the door behind her roommate, Victoria sat back down on her bed. Tears pricked her eyes. Making friends had been a little easier in college, but everyone still kept her at a distance. It was as if people came too close to Victoria's orbit, they feared they'd catch some disease. She felt genuinely jealous of Camilla's ability to make friends with other girls so easily. Victoria always craved that close female companionship that most other girls seemed to have. Sure, she liked her male friends a lot and she was close with them, she supposed, but she longed for that "sisterhood" feeling that Camilla and other girls had.

 _Doesn't matter…I'll always be an outsider_. _No sense in crying about the inevitable._

Pulling on her leggings, a long sweatshirt with the university logo and some boots, Victoria set out to find her car and head into town. She'd read about an occult shop and wanted to make a trip.

Whether or not her visit with Dante and lady were real, she needed to know more about herself.

"What do you mean no pizza?" Dante growled at the phone irritably.

 _I'm sorry sir, but I have strict orders from Mr. Morrison that we can't deliver any more pizza on your tab until he speaks with you._

Hanging up the phone, Dante muttered, _assholes_.

Morrison had been on his ass for the past two weeks about meeting with him to talk about the recent uptick in demonic activity. He supposed that this was the man's way of forcing his hand.

Getting his coat and his guns, Dante locked the shop before heading to Morrison's office.

Having parked her car in a general parking lot, Victoria got out to window shop. Browsing the shops for a while, Victoria quickly found that it was easier said than done to find a book on witchcraft and demons that was actually reliable.

"Excuse me, sir?" she asked the clerk at the sixth bookstore she'd come across.

The man turned around, he was on the hefty side with long sandy hair pulled into a short ponytail at his neck. Giving Victoria a jovial smile, she could see his chin piercing poking out of his facial hair.

 _I'm sure he gets odd questions all the time_ —Victoria relieved herself of guilt."Would you happen to recommend a book for me about magic spells and demons?"

"Interesting. For learning spells or just information?" He smiled quizzically. It could have been a trick of the light, but Victoria could have sworn that the man's pupils dilated to the point that his eyes looked almost entirely black; however, as soon as they had appeared abnormal, did they go back to being hazel and warm.

"I-I just," Victoria didn't know what to say. She hadn't predicted a question such as this, and she didn't want to give away the fact that she knew magic. "I don't know. Either or I suppose."

"No," the clerk said. His badge said "Alex" on it. "You want to know," he added, pulling off his glasses.

"Know what?"

He didn't answer. Instead, Alex went to the back.

Victoria could hear him rumbling around before he came back with a rather large tome.

Looking at it, Victoria could tell that it was very old. Alex held the book out for her to touch it. Upon doing so, she felt energy surge up her arm. Her head spun as her mind flooded with disjointed knowledge— _No sharing!_ A voice commanded her.

Dizzy and slightly nauseous, she asked how much for the tome.

"Not for sale, but you're welcome to read it in the shop. This is the real deal. "Alex smiled knowingly as he handed the book to Victoria— _As real as you_. As a half-angel, Alexander was sensitive to the supernatural, and the girl before his exuded supernatural power, just waiting to be tapped,

"A witch huh?" Morrison mused. He compromised with Dante and they got strawberry sundaes.

"Yeah, lethal too." Dante hadn't told Lady that when Victoria cast her spells, he felt something odd. It was difficult to put into words too; the aura the woman's spells emanated felt natural, yet immensely hot and destructive all at once. It was as if she was harnessing nature's power itself.

"Interesting, and with no spell book or chants?"

"None that I could hear," Dante finished his sentence along with his sundae.

 _Highly unusual_ —Morrison mused. Though his demon hunting days had long been over, he still kept contact with those who were still in the business. He'd seen or met various types of supernatural individuals: not just demons, but also vampires, werewolves, ghosts and "witches". He had met many people who were magic users, but nothing like the young woman Dante was describing; they all needed chants or spell books. Despite the fact that "witches", or "magic users" were common, most needed a spell book or chants to harness the magic of nature to bend to their will. Hell! Even Arkham was naturally gifted with magic, but he still needed a spell book to bend natural power to his will. So how was a novice witch able to use magic without chants or a spell book, yet a seasoned mage like Arkham could not?

This question was beyond Morrison, but he knew a man who wasn't.

Victoria sighed in frustration as she stretched her aching back. She'd been leaned over the tome of a magic book for over an hour, translating its passages into modern English. Yet, she had managed to get as far as five pages which essentially told her nothing: "Harnessing the natural abundance and power of the Earth's magic is difficult, but the first step": Victoria had initially translated. "However, once this magic is harnessed and understood, it is limitless." She had assumed she'd only gotten as far as the prologue of the tome of "Magic".

Hearing the bell ring, Victoria looked over and felt her blood run cold when she saw the familiar man in red traveling with another man wearing a brown trench coat.

 _NO!_ Though she had never "met" this man in her entire life, Victoria felt Déjà vu as visions of a sword cutting through a monster invaded her mind. _You aren't supposed to be real!_

Hiding behind a shelf, she took everything off the table with her, including the book.

"I'll translate this later," she thought as she took pictures of the book with her phone. Alex was too busy speaking with the recent customers to tell her there was nothing to fear.

As Alex spoke of his unusual heritage, he failed to notice a petite woman slink out the same door a customer had cone in.

Getting back to her room, Victoria was worn out, but not done yet; she desperately wanted to finish translating the passage.

Pulling out the photos of the passage, Victoria translated them. Chanting the words out aloud and finishing the passage, Victoria waited for something to happen. She waited and waited for hours, but nothing happened…

Fed up with this whole non-sense, Victoria put her scribe away, and readied for bed.

Pulling her clothes off, she failed to notice the black smoke entering her room from under her doorway.

Scrutinizing her face in the mirror, Victoria saw lines on her mouth for the first time. Surely there's a spell to cure this! She distressed at the slight marionette lines on her face, not noticing the smoke in her room. Crying a little at the fact she was aging like all humans, Victoria crawled into bed without noticing how cold the air was on her bare feet.

Feeling guilty as Lady knocked the RA, "Laura" out, she took the woman's post after laying her on her bed. Putting the "Do Not Disturb" sign out on the window, Lady waited for Victoria; _surely she will come to an elder in search for advice._

After a few hours of posing as "Laura" and letting other underclassman knock before leaving, Lady felt something unusual. It was something she could not ignore. It felt omnipresent and ominous, feelings, which got worse as she crept towards the room these feelings were emanating from: Room 911.

Eyes widening at the realization, Lady slammed her fist onto the "Fire Alarm". A loud noise went off and everyone but the girl fled the ninth floor of the third tower of dormitories at the university.

Instead of fleeing, the "witch" girl shot out of her room, fully dressed in combat gear, to face the dark entity.

Leading the other girls on the ninth floor out of the girl's side of floor nine, Lady focused her attention towards the dark figure that had materialized.

After all the other girls ran past her, Victoria stood; fixated on the dark figure before her.

"Valak," the name suddenly flooded her mind, unpleasantly.

"Valak" then materialized as a benevolently matronly form before her.

Dressed as an old, benevolent gypsy before her, "Valak" smiled. "I've been waiting for you", the demon smiled harshly, yet calmly. "Child of Ariel!" Valak roared. "Show me what you've got!"

Victoria reached for her holster, yet found no gun…


End file.
